Microfluidic Technology Applied to Protein Sizing and Quantitation

摘要

The current standard method for analyzing proteins is denaturing gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Researchers rely on this traditional method that has not substantially changed in the past 30 years. There is, however, a strong demand for automation and higher throughput. The development of microfluidics offers an alternative for protein analysis. The first commercial microfluidic system, the Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer, allows for rapid and automated separation of proteins. The chip-based protein analysis is comparable in sensitivity, sizing accuracy and reproducibility to SDS-PAGE stained with Coomassie. Resolution and linear dynamic range are improved. Absolute quantitation accuracy and reproducibility is superior to SDS-PAGE and is comparable to Lowry or Bradford. Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer offers significant advantages to SDS-PAGE such as: fast analysis times, ease of use, automated data analysis, and good reproducibility.